Ten for Ten
by Starshinedown
Summary: A series of ten one-shots focusing on Edward and Carlisle. All vamp, mostly canon or canon/alternate universe. Written for the 10 quotes community on LiveJournal. Chapter one: Edward finally says it, out loud.
1. Confession

Written for the 10_quotes community on LiveJournal. From their profile page: "The deal is to pick a pairing/character of your choice, and write 10 fics about them. BUT, the twist is you have to write them around the specific prompts you have chosen, which are quotes from the AFI's current list of 100 Greatest Movies."

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all things Twilight. I own...a mighty fine collection of novels that other people have written.

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**Confession**

Carlisle's implacable calm did nothing to soothe his nerves. Normally the older vampire's zen-like presence was a balm for Edward, but at the moment he was so tightly wound not even his father figure could tamp down his energy.

The blond doctor smiled softly. His thoughts were hopeful, and filled with disjointed images of Edward finally finding happiness, worry for Edward, and concern for the human girl who'd become a part of his son's life.

He paced the well-appointed office, all nervous energy and confusion. He'd come to talk to Carlisle at the hospital to escape the prying ears of their family at the house. It was a conversation that needed as much privacy as he could manage. Right at the moment, he knew he couldn't deal with Rosalie's derisive thoughts. She was so _angry_ with him, for the danger she thought he was putting the family in, that being anywhere near her unbearable. He was already agitated; his "sister" would help nothing.

"All I know is that I'm obsessed, infatuated. Carlisle, it's not healthy, how I feel."

_Son_. Carlisle hesitated.

Edward was hard pressed to ignore the older vampire's thoughts as he decided how to voice what he wanted to say.

"Edward, tell me. "Do you love her?"

He stopped, considering. How much did he want to share? How much could he bear to share? This was all so new, so confusing... "I don't know how I feel." A pause. "I'm grateful I can feel _anything_." He looked up at met the steady gaze of his mentor, his father-figure, the standard by which he judged all others. "I know I'm obsessed with her."

_Then say it_, Carlisle said mentally. _You keep telling me that you're obsessed, you're infatuated. Say that you're in love with her._

Could he? Edward wondered. She was just a girl, a delicious-smelling teenager in his biology class with a propensity for getting injured. A girl whose room he sat outside of each night, listening to her breathe while she slept. Obsessed? Certainly. Infatuated? Yes. But...in love? "I don't think...is this how love feels, Carlisle?"

His reply was a kind smile and an arched eyebrow.

Edward took a deep breath. "I'm in love with her."

_Was that so hard, Son?_

"Terrifying," Edward answered, his voice shaking. He wanted anything but this. Anything but the perfect memory of her heart pounding a tempting beat whenever he came near her, anything but horror-filled memory of seeing that van careen toward her in the parking lot. How could he have fallen in love with a fragile little human?

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**Notes:**

**Movie/quote: **_"Do you love her?" - "I don't know how I feel. I'm grateful I can feel anything... I know I'm obsessed with her." - "Then say it. You keep telling me that you're obsessed, you're infatuated. Say that you're in love with her." - "I'm in love with her." - Network (1976) AFI# 64_


	2. More Than Human

**Title**: More Than Human

**Rating:** G

**Fandom:** Twilight: Carlisle and Edward (but not Carlisle/Edward)

**Movie/quote:** "More human than human' is our motto." - Blade Runner (1982) AFI# 97

**Summary:** Edward is fast, Carlisle is slow, and Bella makes a geek reference.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own, and don't make any profit from, Twilight or the Twilight characters. They are the property of Stephenie Meyer.

**Author's Notes:** This is vaguely set between the first two novels. I'd like to call it a missing moment. Pure fluff.

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Carlisle was walking down the front steps as Edward and I pulled up to their home. I was a little surprised to see Carlisle moving at human speed-I had this idea that when they weren't out in public, the Cullens zipped around at vampire speed. I was pretty sure that I would, in their place.

I didn't have the chance to dwell on that thought, though, because unlike his father figure, Edward decided to move faster than I could track him, and in a blur of motion he was at my door, opening it for me. A small part of me-the Renee part, I thought-had a blip of "hey! I'm a 21st century woman! I can open my own door!" but the rest of me thought Edward's chivalry was terribly romantic. I smiled up at him as I took his offered hand, and allowed him to pull me out of the Volvo.

Once I was on my feet, I snuggled against him for a moment and enjoyed the coolness I could feel through the shirt he was wearing. Before I knew it, I was scooped up in Edward's arms, bridal style. I squeaked. "I can walk, you know. The cast came off."

"But you're so slow." His voice started off in a coo but shifted into what I could only call a whine. It wasn't a tone I was used to hearing from him. He'd cajoled, and he'd mocked, and he'd whispered, but I wasn't sure I'd heard him whine before.

I wasn't sure how to respond, so I pointed at Carlisle, who by this time was parallel to us as he walked to his car. "Carlisle doesn't seem to have a problem with human speed. Is it because he has more practice being around us slow little humans?"

I heard Carlisle laugh. "'More human than human' is our motto," he said.

Edward shook his head, and from the expression on his face, I wondered what else he'd picked up from Carlisle's mind.

"Like Data, from _Star Trek_?" I asked.

"You like _Star Trek_?" Edward looked surprised. "You say the most unexpected things."

I shrugged a little. "Phil likes it, so I've seen a few reruns. It's not my kind of thing, but it's what I thought of when Carlisle said that."

"One day," he said, full of determination, "I'm going to understand how your mind works."

Carlisle paused as he opened his car door, and looked at the two of us. He had a warm smile. "Men will never understand how women think," he said. "It's something I've learned over the centuries."

As he drove down their long driveway, I turned my attention back to Edward. I tapped my head with my index finger. "Locked as tight as a vault," I said, smug.

"My little mystery." He bent his head and shifted me up so he could press his cold lips to my forehead. I wanted to stay here with him forever.


	3. Never Far

**Title:** Never Far

**Rating:** G (or, K, depending on the rating system)

**Fandom:** Twilight. Edward and Carlisle (but not Edward/Carlisle)

**Movie quote:** "Well, uh, nothing was the same when you were away and it'll be all wrong again after you leave. And I just thought perhaps you might, uh ... change your mind?" - The Sound of Music (1965) AFI# 40

**Summary:** A maybe conversation between Edward and Carlisle after Rosalie joins the family.

**Disclaimer:** Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and all Twilight characters. I own them not, and make no profit from this fan work.

**Author's Notes:** Set pre-Twilight.

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Once in the relative privacy of his room, Edward leaned his forehead against the wall. Sliding his hands into his hair, he tried to distract himself by tugging hard on the strands that had been in a sort of permanent disarry since he'd woken to this second, cursed life.

It was a futile effort, of course. He could still hear Rosalie's mind on the other side of the house they shared with Carlisle and Esme. Objectively, he knew that she was just overwhelmed by the changes Carlisle's venom had wrought, knew that after her experience at the hands of her fiancee the last thing she'd wanted to learn was that she'd been changed to be his companion. With her angry thoughts rattling through his head, though, it was hard to maintain that objectivity. All he wanted was to get away.

Away. Maybe coming back home, the prodigal son returning, had been a poor idea. He knew Esme and Carlisle had been ecstatic to have him back in the fold, knew it from their thoughts as well as their words and actions, but there were always times like this when the idea of running was incredibly attractive.

After another torrent of mental abuse coming from the newest member of their odd little family, Edward put his fist through the plaster and wooden slats of the wall. He couldn't be in this house. He needed distance. She was killing him.

He turned toward the door, and was surprised to see his father figure standing there, looking sad.

"I'm sorry, son," he said. "I thought-I still think-changing her is the best decision. So much life, such a waste...I couldn't let her die there on the street."

Edward nodded sharply. He knew. Carlisle's thoughts were a swirl of words and images, but even in the confusion the second-guessing there, he held true to his decision to bring debutante Rosalie Hale into the Cullen household.

He grimaced at the mental flailing his new-sister-was doing. "I can't stay here, Carlisle. She is grating."

"Well," the older vampire paused, uncharacteristically unsure. "uh, nothing was the same when you were away and it'll be all wrong again after you leave. And I just thought perhaps you might," he stared straight into Edward's eyes and pushed his hope at keeping their family together toward his child. "uh ... change your mind?"

"I won't go far, Carlisle, or stay away long. I need the mental silence I can find somewhere that is not here, for my own sanity. Otherwise I truly will give into the temptation to just leave." At Carlisle's flash of concern, Edward continued. "I will return. Do not worry. I simply need space for a few days."

Carlisle walked toward him, and laid his hand on Edward's arm. "Don't be gone long, son. Esme and I worry about you." He squeezed gently. "And tell her good bye when you leave, and make sure she knows you are coming back."

Edward tilted his head in agreement, then sped out to speak to the vampire he'd started off thinking off as a type of sister, but more recently had begun to view as a mother figure.

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**Thank you! Feedback is always welcome.**


	4. power

**Title:** Power  
**Rating:** K  
**Fandom:** Twilight  
**Movie/quote:** "Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't." - Schindler's List (1993) AFI# 08  
**Summary:** Edward contemplates the meaning of power.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own, and don't make any profit from, Twilight or the Twilight characters. They are the property of Stephenie Meyer.  
**Author's Notes:** Takes place pre-series. Thank you, AccioBourbon, for pre-reading this and offering your input! *smooches*

**1924**

Edward has learned, in his short years as a vampire, to have a love-hate relationship with his ability to read minds.

He is never alone in his own head unless he is well and truly alone in fact. The thoughts of people, and vampires, bombard him endlessly, and it is easy to imagine a time when his sanity will slip, and he will stop knowing where the boundary between _me_ and _not-me_ exists. In this way, it is a curse. He has had to learn to master his expression so that others don't know he hears every little thing that flits across their conscious minds. It is a trial, and he hates it.

When people speak to him, it is never only their words that he hears, never _just_ the story they want to tell him. In addition he has access to imagery, remembered emotions, and adjacent, errant thoughts that give each story and story-teller added dimension. In some cases, this is a burden. In other cases, though, as when Carlisle is speaking of his long life, it is a blessing. Never hearing just the words, he sees the people as Carlisle remembers them; mannerisms, clothing, hair, and the society in which they lived. In these times his telepathy is something he embraces, and he loves it.

"Aro is the leader," Carlisle tells him, and with the statement comes a perfect memory of a being who has the outer trappings of a human-two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a human shape-but who, with his thin onion-like skin, fierce red eyes, and preternatural poise is very clearly vampire in a way that Carlisle and Edward and Esme can not hope to be. Through Carlisle's memories of this Aro, Edward sees that the sense of otherness comes from the creature's great age, his position, and his whole-hearted embrace of what he believes being vampire truly means.

Carlisle continues as Edward delves into his mind, picking up the extra information that the blond vampire is not telling him. "The other two leading members of the Volturi are Marcus and Caius. They rule their city, and vampires around the world, with little sense of mercy. Their decisions inevitably cause them to solidify their own power and keep other vampires from exposing us to the humans. You must remember their rules, Edward, if you wish to live a long life as an immortal." A string of images flicker through Carlisle's mind; vampire supplicant after supplicant, torn to pieces by Volturi enforcers for angering Aro or breaking the laws the coven had laid down.

Edward sees the greed of Aro, the indifference of Marcus, the way Caius uses one to manipulate the other. Carlisle's memories of the Volturi quashing rebellions all over the known world, enforcing vampire law, flood his mind, and for a moment he is lost in it. "They're so powerful," he says quietly. He can't decide if he's horrified or in awe, and he knows as he speaks that his voice reflects the conflict.

"Not as I see it," Carlisle answers. "Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't. Aro and the others, they kill at their whim and have never taken the time to learn the power of mercy."

And Edward sees the great power that Carlisle wields in the hospital, helping humans recover from injury. He can compare Carlisle's choice to preserve life-a choice he has made over and over and over again since he became vampire nearly three centuries before-with the other vampires' choice to take life at seemingly every turn. He can see already that Esme will follow in their maker's footsteps. She views their new life as a gift, and her temperament is such that she sees mercy as the greatest power, second only to love. Edward wonders, in the crowded images and borrowed memories of his mind, how he will choose to demonstrate the power he has as vampire.

The wave after wave of memory and choice overwhelm him, and he darts from the room, running to the lightly wooded land behind their home to regain some internal silence. The blessing has become the curse again, and he sits on the fog-dampened ground, half hating himself for what he is, and the choices he must make. He doesn't think he's strong enough to view power in any manner but that of the Volturi.

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**Thank you for reading! Reviews are always welcome.**


	5. Star Shine

**Title:** Star Shine

**Rating:** K (or G)

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Movie/quote:** "I love this place at night. The stars... there's no right or wrong in them. They're just there." - Platoon (1986) AFI# 86

**Summary:** The boys have a quiet moment.

**Disclaimer: **All things Twilight are the property of Stephenie Meyer.

**a/n:** Thanks, AccioBourbon for pre-reading this!

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The four of them settled on their backs, sated from the hunt and taking a quiet moment to just be. Edward could hear Jasper's mind reveling in the contentment they were all exuding, and he smiled as his brother took their calmness, multiplied, and sent it back out over the small group.

The result was four happy, content, and blissed out male vampires. The side effect of quieting their minds was a blessing for Edward. Gratitude welled in his heart.

_You're welcome brother_, Jasper whispered in his mind.

"When I was first changed," he said in a hushed voice, "I never imagined I would have a moment like this. Family. Peace."

Carlisle, on Edward's right and feeling meditative in Savasana, hummed in agreement.

Edward let himself contemplate the two eldest vampires near him, and the changes time had wrought in their lives, but eventually he spun back to more familiar thoughts of Bella and Nessie and how, he imagined, his daughter was looking up at these same stars this night. The magnitude of the blessings in his life overwhelmed him for a moment, and joy sang in his heart.

Jasper took this, too, and shared it among the others.

Emmett's voice, barely above a whisper, eased out across the quiet. "I feel the same way, brother. Blessed. Joyful. Grateful."

Above them, the universe's millions of stars illuminated the night sky above the North Cascades National Park, and the four were quiet for a long time, absorbing the beauty and relative quiet of their surroundings.

Edward breathed deep, and exhaled completely as he contemplated the sky above them. "I love this place at night. The stars... there's no right or wrong in them. They're just there."

"I've always been grateful," Carlisle murmured, "that science's explanations of the stars, their composition and age, have never taken away their romance and beauty."

"Science can't strip away beauty," Jasper said quietly. "Even if we understand the mechanics of how we are what we are, the magic of living , as human or now as vampire, doesn't disappear. We are, just as the stars are; not inherently right or wrong. Simply existing."

Edward opened his mouth to argue, to point out that they are nothing like the stars but abominations of nature, but he caught a flash of Nessie in Jasper's mind, and closed it. He may have thought his existence cursed, and his initial reaction to news of Bella's pregnancy warped by that perception, but his child was evidence enough-really, Carlisle and Esme were evidence enough-that they were, like humans, inherently neither good no evil.

For the first time, Edward really believed that.

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**a/n:** A side note for y'all. A Different Forest has invited me to archive my Twilight fic on their site, so I'm one of their VIP Authors now.


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